On this week’s episode, we say hello to a new team member and discuss the school choice movement in the Gulf South.

In the Gulf South, “school choice” programs have promised parents more options. But implementation issues and possible harm to public schools have some worried.

The gathering was part of the ongoing UNO Memory Project, a series led by doctoral student Amanda Mester-Brown, who has spent months collecting oral histories from the people who built, studied at and loved the university.

Education advocates had sued to block the plan but dropped their case Tuesday, citing “uncertain prospects for success.”

The judge’s 11-day restraining order forbids Landry from using the money and from continuing to collect ballots from lawmakers who previously had until Tuesday to vote on the order.

The Louisiana Department of Education estimates the stipends will cost school systems anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in funding, depending on the number of employees.

Rather than add money to the budget, like in recent years, the governor is asking lawmakers to cut $168 million from schools’ budgets.

Fateama Fulmore recently finished her first full school year as head of New Orleans’ public schools.

Jeanette Weiland, who joined UNO’s leadership in March, will serve as interim chancellor and chief administrative officer.

While the state’s largest teachers' unions supported Amendment 3 on the May 16 ballot, some educators opposed the measure, and some union affiliates remained neutral as a result.